-What's up Prizefight fans?
I'm Brian Tong and wearable tech is here to stay, so we're bringing you the cream of the crop.
It's a Prizefight punch out between the Fitbit Flex and the Jawbone Up.
Our judges for this fight, our senior editor, Brian "Boom-Boom" Bennet, and myself, "Ring-a-ling-a-ding" Tong.
Now, we'll take both judges' blind scores and average them out to the nearest 10th each round.
The final Prizefight score will be an average of all rounds using the same decimal system.
It's four rounds to the finish.
First one is design.
The Fitbit Flex brings on a new design with its first wristband and a tiny pebble that fits inside but charges separately.
It's light and compact, and its five LED indicator lights show you how close you are to your goal with a double tap.
It's not the easiest wristband to put on and it can really be a pain to secure it sometimes.
Now, the Jawbone Up brings
the most unique and stylish fitness wristband with multiple colors and a unique design element.
It's really easy to put on since it's molded to fit on your wrist with metal accents, but it's a little more rigid and slightly less comfortable.
It also has a single LED display that shows whether you're active or sleeping.
Now, the eyes don't lie and the Jawbone Up takes this round with a 4 and the Fitbit Flex gets a 3. Next round is features.
The Fitbit Flex's major distinguishing feature is its Bluetooth
syncing that works flawlessly, but phone owners will need either iPhones, Galaxy S3 or S4s, or Galaxy Note phones to use it.
Now, if not, you'll also be able to sync it to your Mac or PC.
Sleep mode is a must-have feature, but it can be difficult to activate since you have to tap the Flex six times at a specific tempo to activate the mode.
It takes several tries and I still haven't mastered it.
Now, Fitbit's app may not be the prettiest looking one, but it packs better goal setting and data entry.
It's compatible
with their Fitbit Aria scale and its food calorie counter database is more robust as well.
Now, the Jawbone Up brings no wireless syncing capability; and instead, you'll need to physically connect it through the headphone jack every time to sync your data.
When you have to do it multiple times, it becomes a hassle and a pain in the butt, but it's not a product killer.
Now, the Up app is hands down the best-looking fitness app with its bright-colored graphs and displays and it's organized in a cleaner way.
The only issue
is that you can only view your data through the phone app and there's no way to view it on your computer at home.
The Up's sleep mode is super easy to get into with just holding down the physical button at the end of the wristband and that's what you wanna do before you go to sleep.
Both wristbands are water resistant and the data collected can also be synced to other fitness apps to try.
The Fitbit Flex takes this round with a 4 and the Jawbone Up gets a 3. So, after averaging two rounds, we're tied.
Round three is data.
It's all about the data and these two fitness bands collect the number of steps you've taken, the calories burned, distance covered, and the quality of your sleep.
It's really a push here.
-Oh, there go those shorts again.
-Now, the Fitbit also offers a premium service that's a deeper dive for $49.99 a year and that gives you even more advanced data analysis and overall better goal setting.
It's close,
but the Fitbit Flex gets the edge here with a 4 and the Jawbone gets a 3.5.
We've got one more round left to go, the final round that decides it all in value.
The Fitbit Flex retails for $99.99 and it's a solid price compared to its competitors with Bluetooth syncing really being the killer feature here.
Now, the Jawbone Up retails for $129.99 and it still brings everything you expect, but it feels like you're paying a little more for its unique styling, especially without Bluetooth.
So, when you add it all up, the Fitbit Flex offers you more bang for your buck and we're giving it a 4 and the Jawbone Up gets a 3. So, let's average out all four rounds in a Prizefight that went neck and neck.
The Fitbit Flex pushed a little harder in the end, taking this Prizefight 3.8 to 3.4, and is your Prizefight winner.
You could really go either way on this Prizefight, but these are the top two fitness bands that bring you data you can really use
instead of some calculated number called Fuel -- it really doesn't track anything specific.
I'm Brian Tong.
Thanks for watching and we'll catch you guys next time for another Prizefight.